Normalizing and restoring on-line handwriting

-Preprocessing and normalization techniques for on-line handwriting analysis are crucial steps that usually compromise the success of recognition algorithms. These steps are often neglected and presented as solved problems, but this is far from the truth. An overview is presented of the principal on-line techniques for handwriting preprocessing and word normalization, covering the major difficulties encountered and the various approaches usually used to resolve these problems. Some measurable definitions for handwriting characteristics are proposed, such as baseline orientation, character slant and handwriting zones. These definitions are used to measure and quantify the performance of the normalization algorithms. An approach to enhancing and restoring handwriting text is also presented, and an objective evaluation of all the processing results. Feature extraction Normalization On-line Handwriting Restoration Preprocessing evaluation